TY - JOUR
T1 - Parallelized patient-specific quality assurance for high-dose-rate image-guided brachytherapy in an integrated computed tomography-on-rails brachytherapy suite
AU - Kim, Taeho
AU - Showalter, Timothy N.
AU - Watkins, W. Tyler
AU - Trifiletti, Daniel M.
AU - Libby, Bruce
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Brachytherapy Society.
PY - 2015/11/1
Y1 - 2015/11/1
N2 - Purpose: To describe a parallelized patient-specific quality assurance (QA) program designed to ensure safety and quality in image-guided high-dose-rate brachytherapy in an integrated computed tomography (CT)-on-rails brachytherapy suite. Materials and Methods: A patient-specific QA program has been modified for the image-guided brachytherapy (IGBT) program in an integrated CT-on-rails brachytherapy suite. In the modification of the QA procedures of Task Group-59, the additional patient-specific QA procedures are included to improve rapid IGBT workflow with applicator placement, imaging, planning, treatment, and applicator removal taking place in one room. Results: The IGBT workflow is partitioned into two groups of tasks that can be performed in parallel by two or more staff members. One of the unique components of our implemented workflow is that groups work together to perform QA steps in parallel and in series during treatment planning and contouring. Coordinating efforts in this systematic way enable rapid and safe brachytherapy treatment while incorporating 3-dimensional anatomic variations between treatment days. Conclusions: Implementation of these patient-specific QA procedures in an integrated CT-on-rails brachytherapy suite ensures confidence that a rapid workflow IGBT program can be implemented without sacrificing patient safety or quality and deliver highly-conformal dose to target volumes. These patient-specific QA components may be adapted to other IGBT environments that seek to provide rapid workflow while ensuring quality.
AB - Purpose: To describe a parallelized patient-specific quality assurance (QA) program designed to ensure safety and quality in image-guided high-dose-rate brachytherapy in an integrated computed tomography (CT)-on-rails brachytherapy suite. Materials and Methods: A patient-specific QA program has been modified for the image-guided brachytherapy (IGBT) program in an integrated CT-on-rails brachytherapy suite. In the modification of the QA procedures of Task Group-59, the additional patient-specific QA procedures are included to improve rapid IGBT workflow with applicator placement, imaging, planning, treatment, and applicator removal taking place in one room. Results: The IGBT workflow is partitioned into two groups of tasks that can be performed in parallel by two or more staff members. One of the unique components of our implemented workflow is that groups work together to perform QA steps in parallel and in series during treatment planning and contouring. Coordinating efforts in this systematic way enable rapid and safe brachytherapy treatment while incorporating 3-dimensional anatomic variations between treatment days. Conclusions: Implementation of these patient-specific QA procedures in an integrated CT-on-rails brachytherapy suite ensures confidence that a rapid workflow IGBT program can be implemented without sacrificing patient safety or quality and deliver highly-conformal dose to target volumes. These patient-specific QA components may be adapted to other IGBT environments that seek to provide rapid workflow while ensuring quality.
KW - HDR image-guided brachytherapy
KW - Patient-specific QA
KW - Rapid workflow
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84940939440&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.brachy.2015.07.006
DO - 10.1016/j.brachy.2015.07.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 26356642
AN - SCOPUS:84940939440
SN - 1538-4721
VL - 14
SP - 834
EP - 839
JO - Brachytherapy
JF - Brachytherapy
IS - 6
ER -